Sr. Zephrina Mary, FIH
Director, Missions Office
614.228.8603
[email protected]


One Family In Mission

The Missions Office promotes the universal missionary life of the Church and serves as a resource for mission animation, education and awareness. The office represents the Pontifical Mission Societies in the United States, which are under the direct authority of the Holy Father in Rome, with the primary purpose of promoting a missionary spirit of prayer and sacrifice among all baptized Catholics.

Pontifical Mission Societies

The Society for the Propagation of the Faith (SPOF), founded in Lyons, France, in 1822, is charged with gathering offerings from Catholics worldwide to support missions everywhere. The Propagation of the Faith seeks prayer and support for pastoral and evangelizing programs of mission dioceses from high school and college students and adults. This includes aid for the education and support of seminarians, religious novices and lay catechists; for the work of Religious Communities in education, health care and social services; for communication and transportation needs and for disaster and emergency relief, when necessary.  Most familiar to parishioners are the annual collections for World Mission Sunday and Membership Sunday (Propagation of the Faith).

The Missionary Childhood Association (MCA)...(formerly Holy Childhood Association, HCA) is charged with “children helping children,” as envisioned by French Bishop Charles de Forbin-Janson in 1843. MCA helps to animate children from kindergarten through eighth grade to a universal missionary spirit and to gather funds for the mission dioceses that serve the poorest of the world’s children. Many of our schools and religious education programs participate in MCA. 

The Society of St. Peter Apostle, founded in 1889, invites us to support the education and formation of men and women to the priesthood and religious life in the missions. We are encouraged to offer our prayers and financial help. Offerings are made through an annual direct-mail summer appeal. The Society of St. Peter Apostle supports some 30,000 seminarians in formation all over the world.

The Missionary Union of Priests and Religious, founded in 1916, is a spiritual apostolate that informs and forms priests, religious men and women, pastoral leaders and those responsible for catechesis and religious education so that they may better animate others in a missionary spirit.